If you sell property that you have inherited or received as a gift, the question arises as to whether a capital gain realised since the acquisition of the property is taxable.<\/p>\n
Pursuant to Section 23 (1) sentence 3 of the Income Tax Act (EStG), properties that were used for own residential purposes in the year of sale and the two preceding years are not subject to tax.<\/p>\n
Pursuant to Section 23 (1) sentence 1, capital gains are also not taxable if the purchase was made more than ten years ago (\u201especulation period\u201c).<\/p>\n
Acquisition is a purchase of the property from a third party, either for cash or as a property exchange transaction. You only have to pay tax on any capital gain later on if you had acquisition costs. This means that a property that you have inherited or received as a gift is not deemed to have been acquired in this sense. The 10-year speculation period therefore does not start from the time you inherit or receive the property as a gift. Rather, in the case of an inheritance or gift, you take over the speculation period from the testator or donor. This means, for example: If the testator had purchased a rented property more than 10 years ago, you are exempt from speculation tax if you sell it. If the testator purchased the rented property only 5 years before the inheritance or before the date of the gift, for example, you take over this period and then have to wait another 5 years before you can sell the property free of income tax.<\/p>\n
If a co-heir acquires the inheritance share of another co-heir in return for payment, he\/she has acquisition costs for the estate property. A capital gain within the speculation period since the acquisition of the inheritance share is then taxable (BFH judgement of 20 April 2004, ref. IX R 5\/02, BStBl. 2004 II p. 987). An example: After the death of their mother, children A and B each become heirs in equal shares. The inheritance includes a property that the mother had purchased over 10 years ago. If the children sell the property jointly to a third party, the mother's period of ownership is taken into account. This would not be a taxable speculative transaction. If, on the other hand, child A buys half of the inheritance share from child B and then sells the property, the following applies: For child B, the sale of the inheritance share does not trigger a taxable speculative gain. In the event of a resale, child A also takes over the mother's period of ownership in the amount of his own inheritance share (50 per cent). However, a new ten-year speculation period begins for the additional share purchased. If child A sells the property without waiting another 10 years, half of the property is a taxable speculative transaction.<\/p>\n
If the assets are actually divided as part of a division of the estate and one heir receives more in value than he is entitled to according to his inheritance share and pays financial compensation to the other co-heir for this, the transfer of assets is at least partially remunerated. In this respect, the acquiring co-heir then has an acquisition transaction. Only the part of the property acquired in return for payment is then subject to speculation tax, provided that there is no further delay of more than 10 years before the property is resold.<\/p>\n
Capital gains on property located abroad are also relevant for persons with unlimited income tax liability in Germany. Due to the so-called world income principle, speculative gains abroad are also subject to Section 23 EStG. This applies without restriction if there is no double taxation agreement (DTA) between Germany and the country in which the property is located with regard to income tax. With regard to the sale of immovable property, the DTAs concluded by Germany generally assign the right of taxation to the country in which the property is located and Germany must therefore exempt the capital gain from taxation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ver\u00e4u\u00dfern Sie Grundst\u00fccke, die Sie geerbt oder im Wege der Schenkung erhalten haben, stellt sich die Frage, ob ein seit der Anschaffung des Grundst\u00fccks erzielter Ver\u00e4u\u00dferungsgewinn zu versteuern ist. Nicht steuerpflichtig sind nach \u00a7 23 Abs. 1 Satz 3 Einkommenssteuergesetz (EStG) Immobilien, die im Jahr der Ver\u00e4u\u00dferung und den beiden vorangegangenen Jahren zu eigenen Wohnzwecken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":388,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-933","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t